Last Call

Everyone's heard about being on call. Come on, you watch Gray's Anatomy, I know you do.

Have you heard of call karma? This is the mystic force which determines what happens every time you are on call. Everybody has it; some have it good and some have it bad. And you learn very quickly which you have.

I did a trauma rotation with a guy called Dan. Dan is in training as a physician assistant with the Canadian Armed Forces. Dan had the ultimate in good call karma:

"Just call me Buddha: rub my belly and nobody in the whole city gets hurt."

Great stuff if you need an uninterrupted night's sleep, but not so much if you have *finally* gotten a placement in a world-class trauma centre and are intending to get some practical training in how to deal with trauma.

Never mind. My theory is: when Dan gets licensed and sent to a war zone, we will have sudden and inexplicable world peace.

This post is dedicated to Dan, for sharing some of his call karma with me so I can write this while ostensibly on call, but in reality I am twiddling my thumbs and avoiding studying.

Which I intend to do, starting:

Now.